RA 78.6345° · Dec -8.2016° · star
14 more points to reach Mythic.
Rigel is an anomaly star. It lies about 862.8 light-years from Earth, sits in the constellation Ori, shines at apparent magnitude 0.18 and has spectral type B8Ia.
Its spectrum reads B8Ia — a blue-white B-type star, with a surface tens of thousands of degrees hot and a life measured in tens of millions of years.
Look for Rigel in the constellation Ori. At apparent magnitude 0.18, it can be glimpsed with the unaided eye under dark skies.
Like any astronomical target, Rigel is best seen from a dark site away from city lights, and when it is above the horizon depends on your latitude and the time of year. The visibility panel above works out tonight's viewing window for your saved location.
Rigel scores 106 points on Spacedle's rarity scale, which places it in the anomaly tier. Another 14 points would lift it into a rarer tier.
That score comes from 9 science badges — Star, Brilliant (mag < 1), Has a proper name, In Orion's hunting ground, Hot blue B-type star, Supergiant, Blue-white star and Blindingly luminous (Mv < −5) — each earned for a real, measurable property of the object. Rarity on Spacedle is never random: the more remarkable an object's astrophysics, the more badges it collects, the higher it scores, and the rarer it ranks.